Wanda Koop

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Wanda Koop
Koop at the Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival in 2012
Born (1951-11-05) November 5, 1951 (age 72)
AwardsQueen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
2002
Order of Canada
2006
Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts
2016
ElectedRoyal Canadian Academy of Art
2005
Websitewww.wandakoop.com

Wanda Koop CM OM DFA DLitt RCA is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As well as being an artist, she is a community activist and founded Art City, a free community art centre for inner city youth in Winnipeg (1998).[1]

Life[edit]

Koop was born on November 5, 1951, in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Russian Mennonite parents who had escaped the Russian Revolution.[2] Koop graduated from the Lemoine FitzGerald School of Art, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg in 1973.[3]

In 2002 Koop was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, in 2005 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, in 2006 she was appointed a member of the Order of Canada, and in 2016 she received the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.[4][5][6][7]

Koop and her mother were the subjects of the 2007 documentary Wanda Koop: In Her Eyes about their visit to the Ukraine, where Koop's mother was born.[8][9]

Work[edit]

While still studying at the University of Manitoba School of Art, in 1972, Koop's work was included in an exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.[10] Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Koop was the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including the 1985 travelling exhibition Airplanes and the Wall; the 1991 travelling exhibition Wanda Koop: Recent Paintings;[11] and the 1998 exhibit See Everything, See Nothing at The New Gallery.[12] From February 18 to May 15, 2011, her solo exhibition entitled On The Edge Of Experience was shown at the National Gallery of Canada[4] in Ottawa, Ontario.

Koop's work often combines aspects of video, performance, or photography. As Robin Laurence describes in the Spring 2000 issue of Canadian Art, Koop "is interested in expanding the languages of paint and video, integrating them into the complex terms of loss and grief and reclamation."[13]

Her "Barcode Face" series created a new Canadian landscape. Koop revisited the series in 2021, as it was included in the group exhibition, A Thought Sublime at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York City.[14] In 2022, her exhibition View From Here was one of the shows which accompanied the opening of the new Inuit art building at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.[15] Also in 2022, her exhibition Wanda Koop: Lightworks was shown at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.[16] In 2024, she showed a new body of work at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in her first monographic exhibition in Quebec titled Wanda Koop: Who Owns the Moon.[1]

Community activism[edit]

In addition to her art, Koop is an ardent community activist. In 1998 she founded Art City, a community art centre in Winnipeg's West Broadway neighbourhood as a way to bring together contemporary visual artists and inner-city youth.[5][17]

Selected awards and honours[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Exhibitions". www.wbam.qc.ca. MMFA. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Wanda Koop". canadianart.ca. Canadian Art. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  3. ^ "Major Exhibition of Winnipeg artist Wanda Koop opens at the National Gallery of Canada". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. February 27, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Wanda Koop: On the Edge of Experience". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Wanda Koop". ccca.concordia.ca. The CCCA Canadian Artist Database. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  6. ^ Order of Canada citation
  7. ^ "The Canada Council for the Arts - Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts". archive.ggavma.canadacouncil.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
  8. ^ Nielsen, Valerie (April 13, 2001). "Wanda Koop: In Her Eyes". CM: Canadian Review of Materials. University of Manitoba. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  9. ^ "Wanda Koop: In Her Eyes". www3.nfb.ca. National Film Board. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  10. ^ "Wanda Koop - Michael Gibson Gallery".
  11. ^ "Division Gallery Toronto – Wanda Koop – CV".
  12. ^ Jacobson, Melody, ed. (2000). Silver: 25 Years of Artist-Run Culture, 1975-2000. Calgary: Alberta: New Gallery Press. p. 113. ISBN 9781895284096.
  13. ^ Laurence, Robin (2000). "Moving Pictures" (PDF). canadianart.ca. Canadian Art. p. 87. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  14. ^ "A Thought Sublime". www.artforum.com. Artforum magazine. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  15. ^ "Wanda Koop: View From Here". www.wag.ca. Winnipeg Art Gallery. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  16. ^ "Wanda Koop: Lightworks". mcmichael.com. McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  17. ^ "Art City: About". artcityinc.com. Art City. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  18. ^ a b "Queen Elizabeth Medals". www.gg.ca. Governor General of Canada. 11 June 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  19. ^ a b c "Wanda Koop". ccca.concordia.ca. CCCA Art Data base. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  20. ^ "Wanda Koop". archive.gg.ca. Government of Canada. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  21. ^ "GG Awards archives". www.youtube.com. Governor General of Canada. Retrieved 17 August 2022.

External links[edit]